Lin Qi's outrageous remarks after Game 1 of the series ignited the fury of the Washington media.
The Washington Post rearranged its layout overnight, printing the headline "From Game 2 onwards, they will have no chance of winning" in huge bold letters on the sports front page. Bullets manager Bernie Baker, looking grim, had dozens of copies made and plastered all over the walls of the visiting team's locker room.
Chris Webber, one of the parties involved, responded with a sneer in an interview, "That young president of Boston is probably drunk. Does he even know what the playoffs are? The day after tomorrow, we'll shut them up in the most brutal way possible."
While the media and fans were arguing fiercely outside the arena, the Boston locker room was eerily quiet.
Twenty minutes before Game 2 of the series began, Lin Qi walked into the locker room. He didn't give a long speech; he simply walked to Garnett's locker, casually tossed the newspaper he was holding next to Garnett's shoes, then patted Garnett on the shoulder, exchanged a glance with the young power forward, and turned and left without a word.
The iron gate closed. Garnett stared intently at Webber's defiant face on the newspaper, his previously tense facial muscles gradually relaxing. He bent down, picked up the newspaper, stuffed it into the cabinet, turned his head, and grinned menacingly at Sam Cassell beside him.
At the press conference, Lin Qi shielded himself from all the media's criticism. If he falters tonight, it won't just be him who loses face; the entire Boston will become a laughingstock. The nature of this game has completely changed.
Head coach Rick Adelman went all out tonight, making a complete overhaul of the starting lineup: Sam Cassell, Eddie Jones, Kevin Garnett, P.J. Brown, and Dikembe Mutombo.
When these five tall players, whose average height and wingspan are terrifying in the Eastern Conference, stepped onto the wooden floor together, the commentary booth for the national broadcast fell silent for a second. The frontcourt trio of Brown, Garnett, and Mutombo, combined with Jones on the perimeter, formed an impenetrable green iron gate on the defensive end.
As soon as the game started, Chris Webber immediately sensed the change in his matchup. Upon entering the game, he still tried to drag Garnett back to the low post, but Garnett didn't fall for it at all. Once in the half-court, Garnett would take the initiative to step back and move laterally, leaving the most energy-consuming physical battles in the low post to P.J. Brown beside him without reservation, while he quietly retreated to the more threatening weak side.
After receiving the ball, Webber drove towards the basket, attempting to force his way into the paint using his strength. However, Brown had already lowered his center of gravity and was ready to fight. Webber made two consecutive powerful impacts, but the defense behind him didn't budge an inch.
Completely freed, Garnett observed coldly from the flank. The moment Webber was tightly bound by Brown, and his movements faltered or faltered even slightly, Garnett's spider-like arms would precisely close in from his blind spot.
The moment Webber dribbled with his back to the basket and turned to face the basket, Garnett's long arms shot out like a ghost, flicking the ball with his fingertips for a precise steal, directly disrupting the Bullets ' offensive rhythm; when Webber was forced to make a hasty crossover pass to the perimeter under pressure from Brown, Garnett was able to use his terrifying lateral movement and anticipation to steal the ball in mid-air and launch a fast break.
Even if Webber manages to carve out the last bit of space under Brown's relentless defense and forcefully turn around to shoot, Garnett will instantly leap into the air a second time, using his wingspan to completely obscure the view, to deliver a clean and decisive block the moment the ball leaves his hands.
Throughout the first half, Webber repeatedly attempted to provoke Garnett with chest bumps during dead balls, but Garnett didn't even glance at him, simply chewing on his mouthguard and turning away. This complete disregard left Webber, who was used to overwhelming opponents with his presence, feeling as if he had punched into a sandpit, unable to find any point of leverage.
With his defense freed up, Garnett on offense used his exceptional long-range shooting ability, a rarity in this era, to completely stretch the Bullets ' defense.
He frequently used Brown and Mutombo's broad shoulders to set high double screens, circling directly to the long two-point area or even beyond the three-point line to receive the ball. As long as Webber's defense dropped even a step, Garnett would receive the ball and, without even a spare probing step, pull up for his signature jump shot. And when Webber was forced to grit his teeth and stay on the perimeter, completely relinquishing his defensive position in the paint, Garnett's explosive power on the face-up drive truly revealed its fangs.
The basketball continued to pierce the net with precision.
In contrast, Webber, who scored 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists tonight, still boasts an all-around leader's stat line. However, under Boston's repeated pressure, he delivered an inefficient shooting performance, making only 7 of 23 shots, along with a whopping 5 turnovers.
On this night, Garnett completely entered a team state where he abandoned personal gains and losses, and even forgot himself.
With 25 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 4 blocks, this incredibly well-rounded stat line didn't include a single defensive play or shot attempt. It wasn't driven by personal grudges or a desire to outmaneuver Webber. This 20-year-old prodigy had completely shed all his restlessness and competitive spirit. On the wooden floor, he no longer focused on proving "who is the stronger genius," but instead became a perfectly integrated cog in the team's rotation.
As long as they can win, he is willing to retreat to the weak side to do the most tedious baseline positioning, and willing to give up his own opportunity for a fast break dunk after every successful defense, so as to pass the ball to a teammate in a better position.
When he reduced his inflated ego to the extreme and amplified the "team first" logic to the extreme, this almost ruthless selflessness allowed him to display a truly despair-inducing dominance on both offense and defense. With three minutes left in the final quarter, the Bullets voluntarily pulled their starters and surrendered. Boston steadily won the second game at home, tying the series 1-1.
Lin Qi's harsh words to the American media at the press conference were turned into reality on this night by the Celtics, who had undergone a complete transformation on the defensive end.
Forty-eight hours later, Game 3 of the first round of the series moved to Washington, D.C..
The Bullets ' home arena was filled with boos. However, this brand-new starting lineup has completely shut down the Bullets ' tactical weaknesses.
Washington's All-Star point guard Rod Strickland quickly discovered that the usual pick-and-roll and isolation plays had become a trap tonight.
Whether he tries to drive hard on the perimeter or lobs the ball to the low post for Webber or Juwan Howard to score one-on-one, Boston's defense instantly escalates whenever the Bullets ' star player is ready to get into a one-on-one rhythm. On top of their already solid matchup defense, either Kevin Garnett or Eddie Jones will always suddenly appear from the side, instantly forming a tight encirclement with their matchup.
This high-intensity "one-on-one defense" combined with "sudden double-teaming," in a context where zone defense is strictly prohibited, is almost an extreme and repeated test of the edge of illegal defensive rules.
In this era where defenders must man-to-man and are not allowed to roam in the vacuum, the referee's whistle is practically on their lips. If Garnett or Jones, as help defenders, are even half a step slow in their rotation, or fail to create an aggressive hard delay when double-teaming, they will be immediately called for illegal defense.
But as the series progressed, the Boston team clearly became more and more adept at rotating this suffocating tactic.
Both Garnett and Jones demonstrated terrifyingly fast rebounding abilities. In the absolute instant when they helped their teammates completely shut down the ball handler's passing vision, the person responsible for double-teaming would use their amazing explosiveness to instantly bounce back in front of their original defender the moment the ball was barely passed to an open space.
The feeling was like a super-stretched latex tape that was stretched to its limit and then instantly returned to its original position.
When Tracy Murray, the Bullets, received the ball, he thought it was a perfect open shot. However, as soon as he raised his hand to catch his breath, he was met with Garnett's or Jones' long arms that completely blocked his shooting path.
With Brown and Mutombo relentlessly battling the two interior stars in the low post, the Bullets, and quick rebounds.
The game was extremely ugly, with both teams' shooting percentages suppressed to below 40%. In this brutal battle of wills, Boston, thanks to the extreme defensive discipline of their new starting lineup, managed to hold onto their advantage on the road and win 86-83.
With a 2-1 lead, the Celtics have taken the lead in the series and are now one match point away from victory.
With two consecutive wins, Garnett is increasingly behaving like a composed hunter on the court. He no longer gambles on who has the more dazzling talent; instead, he has learned to utilize his and Eddie Jones's generational mobility within the rules of the playoffs to dismantle the opponent's tactical axis in the most efficient way.
On the other hand, Bullets 'Webber stats were still an all-around near triple-double, but his expression in the locker room grew more and more somber with each game. He was a smart man, and after this narrow defeat, he had a vague feeling that some tactical initiative was irreversibly slipping towards Boston.